spufandomcom-20200213-history
2015 Formula One season (ME)
Mercedes Manor Marussia its Signed teams and drivers |- italianflag/ScuderiaFerrari ! rowspan="2" | Renault | rowspan="2" | Renault | 1 || Nicolas Velerg || All |- | 2 || William Dumbar || All |- | rowspan="2" | Ferrari Marlboro E racing ! rowspan="2" | Ferrari | rowspan="2" | Ferrari | 3 || Pierre Fronter || All |- | 4 || Mattéo Kalaf || All |- | rowspan="2" | Crédit Suisse Axalow E team ! rowspan="2" | Axalow | rowspan="2" | Mercedes | 5 || Vincent Merulla || All |- | 6 || Quentin Michalak || All |- | rowspan="3" | Team Spytor E team ! rowspan="3" | Spytor | rowspan="3" | Renaultsdf.mkf,lm | rowspan="2" | 7 || Pascal Ophtard || 1–18 |- | Alban Alcatraz || 19–20 |- | 8 || Anthony Fontix || All |- | rowspan="2" | FKF Allianz E racing ! rowspan="2" | FKF | rowspan="2" | Mercedes | 9 || Lillo Calomene || All |- | 10 || Théo Menien || Allfdykjdkfhjghdufvfijehntisdufhi| rowspan="2" | Honda | 14 || Shawn Champagne || All |- | 15 || Florian Sternez || All |- | rowspan="2" | AT et T Jordan E team ! rowspan="2" | Jordan | rowspan="2" | Cosworth | 16 || Carmélo Beckeur || All |- | 17 || Jérémy Lefloque || All |- | rowspan="4" | Cielo Rosa E team ! rowspan="4" | Cielo Rosa | rowspan="4" | Ferrari | rowspan="3" | 18 || Lucas Di Potch || All |-|| |- | |- | 19 || Ugo Louis Portoférit || All |- | rowspan="2" | Team AC E racing ! rowspan="2" | AC | rowspan="2" | Honda | 20 || Maximin Belmahra || All |- | 21 || Baptiste Oisieaux || All |- | rowspan="2" | McKurty E racing ! rowspan="2" | McKurty | rowspan="2" | Cosworth | 22 || Thomas Hernanfel || All |- | 23 || Damien Canter || All |- | rowspan="2" | Hyundai E racing ! rowspan="2" | Hyundai | rowspan="2" | Mercedes | 24 || Guillaume Bemial || All |- | 25 || Loïc Halluin || All |} Team changes * Red Bull Racing → Red Bull Renault Works Team. Following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2014, Renault announced an interest in re-entering F1. Failed talks with Lotus resulted in them looking to Red Bull. The talks were much more successful, and eventually, a deal was agreed on wherein Red Bull would remain as title sponsor, and thus would supply the majority of the funds to the team. Toro Rosso also continued to receive funding from Red Bull GmbH. Driver changes * Ma Quinghua: Caterham → Renault. Ma Quinghua impressed in his maiden season in Formula One, scoring five points in what was largely seen as a back-marker team. Red Bull/Renault offered him a contract, the team looking for new talent that might give them a shot at the constructor's title. * Giedo van der Garde: EADS → Caterham. Giedo was given the chance to * Federico Piazza joins EADS. EADS were looking to * Daniel Ricciardo: Renault → McLaren. Rising start Ricciardo was forced from his seat at Red Bull (now Renault) by a rivalry with team mate Maldonado, as Red Bull were looking to give another young driver the chance to ride with a top team. He expressed disappointment at Red Bull, but was relieved another top team was giving him good potential. * Lewis Hamilton: McLaren → Marussia. Lewis Hamilton, being forced from his seat by Ricciardo's superior 2014 season results, was happy to join rising constructor Marussia, claiming he will be hoping to fight for podiums more vigorously than last year. * Marcus Ericsson: Marussia → Ferrari. Two-time World Champion Marcus Ericsson was looking to prove to the community that it was not just a Marussia he was capable of winning in. He signed a contract with Ferrari as soon as he could, stating "it has been my life-long dream to be on the Ferrari team – the absolute pinnacle of Formula One." * Felipe Massa: Ferrari → Williams. Felipe Massa was forced out of his seat with Marcus Ercisson's arrival. Ericsson admitted regret, though Massa approached the situation confidently, stating his 2014 season at Ferrari didn't give him the results he wanted. * Bruno Senna without a drive. Massa's move meant fellow Brazilian and Ayrton Senna's nephew, Bruno, was left without a drive. With a disappointing season driving for Williams behind him, though, he claimed he saw it coming. * Tu Yu joins McLaren. The first Taiwanese made his debut at McLaren for 2015. McLaren recognized his talents early on in his life, and brought him up through their own young driver's program. * Jenson Button without a drive. During the contract negotiations, he only accepted contracts from larger teams, claiming that his intention was to retire after the next contract expires. His disappointing 2014 season meant that this was not possible, and, in an interview, claimed "15 years in Formula One has been plenty enough." * Ilya Alkaev joins EADS. * Davide Valsecchi without a drive. * Dieter Aeschelman joins Sauber. * Kamui Kobayashi without a drive. Mid season * Caterham: Narain Karthikeyan → Alexander Rossi. Karthikeyan's struggling Caterham crashed and set alight during his home race at India. American test driver Alexander Rossi replaced him. * Caterham: Alexander Rossi → Nino Magro. Alexander Rossi was also injured during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the following race, in an incident involving Maldonado, who was also injured. Italian Nino Magro replaced him for the remainder of the season. * Renault: Pastor Maldonado → Fabiano Cruz. Pastor's injuries were a little less severe than Rossi's, but nevertheless he was ordered to not participate in the rest of the season, despite being fourth at the time. Hyundai-hopeful and Brazilian, Fabiano Cruz, replaced him. He performed extremely well in the two races, scoring two podiums. Pastor was demoted to 5th by team mate Quinghua by the end of the season. Cruz performed so well that Renault demoted Pastor to test driver for the 2016 season. If he performed better than Maldonado before his crash (210 points by the Indian GP), he would be permanently replaced. | |} Report The opening round at Australia showed strong pace for the Renault-engine teams, Lotus and Renault. In particular, Ma Quinghua, with only a year at Caterham in his pocket, scored his first podium for the new Renault team. Vettel had a strong race with Mercedes, thought Schumacher was forced to retire. Nevertheless, the Mercedes' pace was definitely perceived as faster than in 2014. Timo Glock and Lewis Hamilton also proved strong after much speculation that Marussia wouldn't perform well without Marcus Ericsson, though their Cosworth engines gave them problems, demoting them to lower points-scoring positions that were not representative of their race pace. Ericsson proved strong as ever, scoring a 4th despite starting from the back of the grid and serving a drive-through. The same cannot be said for his Ferrari team mate Alonso, though. The media speculated that the Ferrari was not as strong this year. Toro Rosso seemed to replace Caterham yet again as the low-midfield team, the latter struggling to score points throughout the first part of the season. Results and standings : See also: Results table Final standings